I feel sorry for my parents.

[Jed Dilligan]

They are both War Babies, activists all their lives, good people, one retired and the other on the verge. They would like to think they have built something, but everywhere around them they just see all this stupidity.

You know, I can't remember ever not thinking the world was going to end in massive carnage and violence during my own lifetime. I mean, even when I was a little kid, I just assumed it would be so. I've never had much regard for the future and lived my life mostly day-to-day.

I feel sorry for the generations that thought the world would become a better place, not a worse one. I think these times must be harder on them psychologically than on us "disaffected youth."

[1620rock]

1. Where have all the flowers gone...

[brmdp3123]

2. Oh, jeez...

[juno jones]

3. in a way, I am glad both of mine are gone.

They worked for so much more, not as activists, but as people of conscious. True public servants. This shit would have killed them.

[Warpy]

9. My mother lost contact with the world

just before the 2000 election. It was a shame because I knew what she'd have to say about Stupid would have been obscene and spectacularly rude.

My dad was an economic right winger, but the last election he voted in, he v voted for Kerry over Stupid. He liked his tax cut, but it wasn't worth another Vietnam, but what pushed him over the edge were the Smear Boat ads. He felt no vet should ever do that to a brother in arms.

It was his first Democratic vote since Adlai Stevenson ran.

I'm glad they're not around to see just how bad things really are. They worked for more than this, too.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. My dad would be going nuts over dubya

I am so glad he is not here to see what is happening.

[bdamomma]

16. yea, mine too, but before my dad died, before the 2000 election

my father was in a nursing home said while watching TV and seeing Bush, my father said I don't trust that beady eyed bastard, he died before the 2000 election, and to this day my father was right.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. I am a depressed baby boomer

I never thought we would have to take to the streets again over a war once Vietnam ended.

I never thought we would have a worse president than Nixon.

I never dreamed a wonderful Democrat president would use the oval office for anything other than leading the country.

I also don't think I will see the damage dubya has caused fixed in my lifetime.

But I am not too depressed to quit fighting. NEVER.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. The oval office comment was naive. Have you never

used your office for anything other than work?

I follow your other thoughts word by word.

I thought that preemptive war would never be perpetrated by the country that I love and have helped shape and sang to and pledged to.

It's a nightmare.

If it happened before in so called civilized nations, than evil can grab hold around us,too, I would be so ashamed to be a supporter of this administration. They have returned nothing good to our nation.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I've never had sex in my office

[The Wielding Truth]

12. That bothers you as much as Katrina/ Iraq /signing statements?

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. When did I say that?

You are reading way more into this than you need to.

I disapproved of what Clinton did. Strongly. Does that mean I am going to discredit his entire presidency? No. But it is disappointing nonetheless. I often think of how different his legacy would be if he had kept his pants zipped.

But I still think he was a great president.

[The Wielding Truth]

26. Why even mention it with your deep National disappointments?

You realize that we don't have any idea what other Presidents have done in the oval office,which is part of their personal home when they occupy the Whitehouse. I thought it odd that you even put it in the category as these other tragic and democracy rapings. I always saw it as a private mater that did not affect his leadership. He did not promise me his sexual fidelity. If the act was consensual,and it was, it should have been handled within his marriage, not as a side show for voyeuristic repressed Republi-cons to slobber over.

Any how, just thought it should not have been on the sane banner as the greedy * crime family's deeds.

Hey,I guess we have different priorities in our National leaders. No one is perfect and I want my President to not enjoy screwing the country.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Um, because it was a great disappointment?

I still think he was a great president. But I get sad when I think how many other people may think he was a great president if . . .

[The Wielding Truth]

36. Everyone has an Achilles heel, Even the best.

It wasn't so much that he had one, but that it was so thoroughly exploited by so many.
I was mildly disappointed, but in the bigger realm of governmental misconduct I find it trivial. I'm saying if you and others want the government out of your personal business than reduce your disappointment in your leaders personal flaws.

How sure are you that present and past presidents didn't do more outrageous sexual acts in the oval
office.

Let it be. Let him stand on what we hired him for. He served us very well.His global policies were also flawed but are workable.

You are so shocked because he was dallying on the job. I don't see the infidelity clause in the constitution job description and compared to the hideous grotesque deals and plans conceived there now, this was like child's play.

That is where we started losing our strength as a people of common sense. We played into the hands of the small minded prudish moralists. Is there nothing in your past that would shock small minded prudes investigating you with taped personal confessions and congressional testimony, turning over every stone with an unlimited budget?

This is what disappoints me, that you are disappointed in him.

[bdamomma]

17. I won't quit either, not to this idiot, he is only one man, or two we really

have to surgically remove. they are like cancer.

[pnwmom]

5. I don't feel sorry for your parents.

They have a son who loves and respects them. And that helps them to deal with all the stupidity, believe me.

Those of us in the older generation are most upset because of what we see in the future for our children. So the concern works both ways.

Kudos to you and your parents, Jed Dilligan.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. My father, uncles, and grandmother were all Socialists with the same dream.

I was a pre-babyboomer activist and socialist.

As I've grown older I've given up the dreams of a "better world" brought about by politics. Now, I do what I can to help people, the planet, etc.

As I posted on another thread..Want to actually "do something"? Try this.

http://kiva.org/

[Nite Owl]

15. Thanks so much for

the link. I had heard about this but didn't know that there was an organization behind it. Got it bookmarked for the next time I have a little money to spare.

[Jed Dilligan]

35. Thanks for the link

Not that I have money to invest--but I appreciate the idea of community-building as a wiser alternative to old-school political movements.

[enough]

7. I'm 63 years old.

I doubt that your parents ever suffered under the illusions you attribute to them. No one with any eye toward history imagines that they have "built something." Activism has a different origin. Some things must be fought.

[AlCzervik]

14. i feel bad for my kid, we've been at war since she was 7, she thinks this is the way

it's always going to be. I remember having to tell her that her cousin was going back Iraq again and how hard she cried.

[bdamomma]

20. we have to make it a better world for those kids, I have three

what do they have to look forward too. We are most hated country now, we have to remove this venom that damaged this country our country.

[AlCzervik]

22. my daughter gave $60 from her piggy bank, $30 for Obama and $30 for Kucinich

she went to all the candidates web sites and printed out their information, she read it over a few days and then approached with her money. I was really proud of her and many of her classmates also are getting involved in the same way.

[bdamomma]

24. that's great, get them involved early and let them learn our political system

[KoKo]

23. Some of us grew up with THE BOMB and Vietnam...with all war...we wanted it to stop

we will make it stop ...because the dirty secret about these wars is FINALLY OUT...in my lifetime.

Those who connect the dots have lived to tell...it hasn't always been so.

[Cleita]

18. Maybe it's time for you guys to stop being disaffected and

take hold of your destiny like your parents did back then. They started something that upset the status quo and caused a backlash that we are living today. It's time to build on that and take it to the next level for the sake of your children and grandchildren. Or are you just going to sit around being cynical while everything is taken away from you?

[Jed Dilligan]

32. Oh, give me a break.

If you knew me you'd know that

a. I've essentially taken a 90% pay cut to work on social justice instead of defense or economic growth

b. I spent my youth, not partying and traveling, but writing two books, one of which is now optionned

c. I've been protesting and politically active since I could walk.

I never believed we could win--largely because of the bad leadership of the "tune in, turn on, drop out" generation who dropped back in--but it never stopped me fighting.

I just feel bad for those who once felt that victory was in our grasp.

[Cleita]

34. Apologies, I wasn't referring to you but to your angst that seems

to be rooted in your generation. Unfortunately, those of us who felt the victory in our grasp are too old to carry on.

[blondeatlast]

19. My WW2 vet dad died of cancer a few days after we bombed Baghdad.

He rarely talked about his service and was vehemently opposed to the Viet Nam war.

I honestly think "shock and awe" hastened his passing.

God damn you, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice. Goe damn you to hell.

[AlCzervik]

21. my Granpa Irv was also a WW2 vet and he passed in Nov. 03, he also didn't talk

about the war much unless he was around my husbands uncle who was also a WW2 vet, Granpa was a big time liberal that owned a plumbing business and only hired union workers. He was literally the finest person i ever knew.

[blondeatlast]

25. I love hearing these stories. My dad came from a family of 8,

all seven sons served in WW2 and graduated college on the GI Bill. They all chipped in to send my only aunt to college as well. All are/were feisty as hell yellow-dog Dems.

My grampa who raised them was a tenant farmer in Kansas. My 10 yr old son often asks about his grampas service and I often can't tell him. He was damn proud to have helped Europe but not proud of what had to be done to do so (he was an Army Air Force navigator--yes, he did some bombing runs).

[AlCzervik]

27. hey my Granpa was also a Navigator in the air corps. small world!

both his brothers were in the air corp as well, all in from 1938-1946.

[blondeatlast]

29. Wow--I love this place!

How cool is that?

[AlCzervik]

31. very cool!

:hi: :hug:

[johan helge]

30. Disasters may happen, but so far, the world IS becoming a better place

Life expectancy has been steadily increasing all over the world the last decades - except Sub-Saharan Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Expectancy

Lynching WAS a big thing in the US, not so now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States

[Jed Dilligan]

33. Two measures that could go south in a second.

There are people in your town waiting for one raised eyebrow from * to come and lynch you and me just for being here.